60-Minute Consultation Auction (Blog)

[Tuumble]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I think he meant to charge people a $1 fee just to submit a bid on top of that.

It is sort of like buying raffle tickets. Every person pays $1 for the chance to win the prize, but only one person wins it.

Correct.

[Savage]

The auction is up to $1K now. Still 3+ days to go.

In my first 6 months of blogging and building up this site, I earned $167 total, about 17 cents per hour.

There appears to have been a slight increase since then.

[Zach M]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

The auction is up to $1K now. Still 3+ days to go.

In my first 6 months of blogging and building up this site, I earned $167 total, about 17 cents per hour.

There appears to have been a slight increase since then.

I bet even a big guy like you enjoys a Congrats.

[roxyruby]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

The auction is up to $1K now. Still 3+ days to go.

In my first 6 months of blogging and building up this site, I earned $167 total, about 17 cents per hour.

There appears to have been a slight increase since then.

I have been trying to make money online for about 4 years and have made probably over $500

Since I started my "proper website" about 5 months ago I have made a couple hundred dollars thanks to it.

When did you suddenly start making a decent amount and how?

[mikethedrummer44]

Steve, how did you afford to live during the six months your website wasn't generating income for you? Leftovers from the game company?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

I have been trying to make money online for about 4 years and have made probably over $500

Since I started my "proper website" about 5 months ago I have made a couple hundred dollars thanks to it.

When did you suddenly start making a decent amount and how?

Simple. I didn't try to make money. I had already learned not to do that from my earlier failure experiences. Trying to make money is what led me to $150K of debt and a bankruptcy. I abandoned that approach many years ago. It doesn't work.

Obviously it hasn't been working for you either. You gotta admit that your results suck, don't they? Making $500 in 4 years is rather pathetic, wouldn't you say?

So what's a better approach than trying to make money?

Forget about the money, and go do what you frakkin' love to do. Do what inspires the heck out of you. And share it with people.

[roxyruby]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Simple. I didn't try to make money.

Thanks for replying. What was your reason for putting ads on your website & charging a price for your book/workshop so that you'd make a profit & signing up for affiliate products (if you did) & putting a donate option on your website?

[Zach M]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

Thanks for replying. What was your reason for putting ads on your website & charging a price for your book/workshop so that you'd make a profit & signing up for affiliate products (if you did) & putting a donate option on your website?

I think that's covered in chapter 10 of his book under Money and Fairness. You have the book, right? I think I read that somewhere.

[Cochonette]

I'm not that familiar with ebay, but I don't understand the Bidder History page... there are only 13 bidders and 49 bids, it says, and several people have bid up even when they still (if I'm reading this correctly) had the highest bid.

Member Id: a***a ( 7 ) US $400.00
Jul-24-10 06:19:28 PDT

Member Id: a***a ( 7 ) US $370.00
Jul-24-10 06:19:12 PDT

Member Id: a***a ( 7 ) US $360.00
Jul-24-10 06:17:16 PDT

Member Id: h***r ( 94Feedback score is 50 to 99) US $350.00
Jul-24-10 04:10:37 PDT

Member Id: s***p ( 610Feedback score is 500 to 999) US $350.00
Jul-24-10 05:12:13 PDT

Member Id: s***p ( 610Feedback score is 500 to 999) US $250.00
Jul-24-10 03:04:49 PDT

???

[Savage]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

Thanks for replying. What was your reason for putting ads on your website & charging a price for your book/workshop so that you'd make a profit & signing up for affiliate products (if you did) & putting a donate option on your website?

Most of those were ideas that other people suggested along the way, many months after my website was already up and running. I was focused on writing and sharing cool articles. And part of the feedback I got was stuff like, "Hey... did you ever think about trying Adsense? I think it would work well with your blog." and "I got so much value out of your work, and I want to pay you back somehow, at least in some small way. Do you have a PayPal account where I can send you a donation?"

So basically, people made it clear when it was time for me to start monetizing. I didn't really have to pay any attention to it. All I did was run experiments. I often shared the results, so other bloggers could benefit from it. By helping make my work financially sustainable, I was able to teach other bloggers to do the same. That allowed a lot more value to be created and delivered.

Getting into joint-venture deals was someone else's idea too. Synchronistically, I just finally met the guy who got me started on that. We'd been working together for 4 years, but I didn't meet him till Sunday night in Santa Fe. He isn't a TLC member, but he lives in Santa Fe.

So you really don't need to try to make money at all. When you're on the path with a heart, people essentially start showing up at your door with bags of cash, and they ask you where you'd like them to set those bags down.

[Josh Samuels]

Originally Posted by Cochonette

I'm not that familiar with ebay, but I don't understand the Bidder History page... there are only 13 bidders and 49 bids, it says, and several people have bid up even when they still (if I'm reading this correctly) had the highest bid.



???

They're almost certainly using eBay's automatic bidding feature, as explained here: Automatic bidding

[roxyruby]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Most of those were ideas that other people suggested along the way, many months after my website was already up and running. I was focused on writing and sharing cool articles. And part of the feedback I got was stuff like, "Hey... did you ever think about trying Adsense? I think it would work well with your blog." and "I got so much value out of your work, and I want to pay you back somehow, at least in some small way. Do you have a PayPal account where I can send you a donation?"

So basically, people made it clear when it was time for me to start monetizing. I didn't really have to pay any attention to it. All I did was run experiments. I often shared the results, so other bloggers could benefit from it. By helping make my work financially sustainable, I was able to teach other bloggers to do the same. That allowed a lot more value to be created and delivered.

Getting into joint-venture deals was someone else's idea too. Synchronistically, I just finally met the guy who got me started on that. We'd been working together for 4 years, but I didn't meet him till Sunday night in Santa Fe. He isn't a TLC member, but he lives in Santa Fe.

So you really don't need to try to make money at all. When you're on the path with a heart, people essentially start showing up at your door with bags of cash, and they ask you where you'd like them to set those bags down.

Oh that's so nice. I guess I just thought unless you made effort and tried to make money in some way, you won't receive anything, that having money is based on your effort to give value+make money.

But someone did actually suggest I put adsense on my site too so there's atleast 1 person that wants me to have some money lol

So you didn't have motivation to "make money" but had motivation to make what you were doing "financially sustainable?" Isn't that the same thing?

Or were you just completely free from the fear of having no money and were in a state of being ok with being homeless/starving etc if doing what you love lead to that?

Thank you

& congrats for meeting that guy, that's awesome

[Savage]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

Oh that's so nice. I guess I just thought unless you made effort and tried to make money in some way, you won't receive anything, that having money is based on your effort to give value+make money.

But someone did actually suggest I put adsense on my site too so there's atleast 1 person that wants me to have some money lol

So you didn't have motivation to "make money" but had motivation to make what you were doing "financially sustainable?" Isn't that the same thing?

Or were you just completely free from the fear of having no money and were in a state of being ok with being homeless/starving etc if doing what you love lead to that?

Thank you

& congrats for meeting that guy, that's awesome

I would have kept doing this kind of work even if it made no money. But I wanted to spend more time on it, and so I wanted to shut down my games business. So my real motivation, at least initially, for making it financially sustainable was so that I could stop doing the games stuff for good and spend even more time doing PD work -- to be even more immersed in it. I just loved it so much that I didn't want any ongoing distractions.

When you discover what you're really passionate about, having to do other things on the side to pay the bills gets really annoying really quick. So there's a stronger motivation to make your passion pay for itself, so you can drop those other distractions and do even more of what you love.

I wasn't worried about starving. I knew that if I did what I loved, I'd eventually get good at it, and I'd be able to provide enough value to people that it would generate income.

So the key formula isn't to give value and make money. The formula is to create value and share it with people.

Creating value begins with you. It means creating a life that you value. You can't give value to others if you don't create it for yourself.

Doing what I love creates value for me. Working on PD certainly adds a lot of value to my life.

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by Cochonette

I'm not that familiar with ebay, but I don't understand the Bidder History page... there are only 13 bidders and 49 bids, it says, and several people have bid up even when they still (if I'm reading this correctly) had the highest bid.



???

If you bid higher than the minimum amount needed, Ebay "hides" your higher bid and sets it as the minimum amount. If someone else bids, Ebay will then automatically raise your bid up to the minimum amount needed to beat them, provided that it's lower than the highest amount you bid.

Example: Say I bid $5, and the bid increment is $1. You bid $10. Now, Ebay will show your bid as $6. If someone else bids $8, Ebay will automatically increment your bid to the smallest number higher than that-$9. The bid history will show:

$5 (Satvik)
$6 (Cochonette)
$9 (Cochonette)

Does that make sense?

[James81]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

So the key formula isn't to give value and make money. The formula is to create value and share it with people.

Any thoughts on how to truly, authentically, get yourself into this frame of mind?

What I mean is, even when I'm *not* after it for the money and truly doing what I love to do, there's still a niggly voice in the back of my head saying "you're eventually going to want to monetize this". Or, rather, it has felt like (on my old site anyway) I'm just following your formula because I know the end result is abundance.

How do you separate the two? How do you get to the place where 100% don't care if what you are doing ever brings you a penny and be so focused on the value that you want to share that money doesn't even enter your mind?

I figure there's a limiting belief behind it somewhere, but the more I look for it, the more it wriggles away like a snake.

[roxyruby]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I would have kept doing this kind of work even if it made no money. But I wanted to spend more time on it, and so I wanted to shut down my games business. So my real motivation, at least initially, for making it financially sustainable was so that I could stop doing the games stuff for good and spend even more time doing PD work -- to be even more immersed in it. I just loved it so much that I didn't want any ongoing distractions.

When you discover what you're really passionate about, having to do other things on the side to pay the bills gets really annoying really quick. So there's a stronger motivation to make your passion pay for itself, so you can drop those other distractions and do even more of what you love.

I wasn't worried about starving. I knew that if I did what I loved, I'd eventually get good at it, and I'd be able to provide enough value to people that it would generate income.

So the key formula isn't to give value and make money. The formula is to create value and share it with people.

Creating value begins with you. It means creating a life that you value. You can't give value to others if you don't create it for yourself.

Doing what I love creates value for me. Working on PD certainly adds a lot of value to my life.

I think I might sort of understand.

Though you say the formula is to create value & share it with people....what about people that volunteer for causes?

Like people that volunteer to organize free groceries for people. Or people that volunteer in free soup kitchens. ? They are creating value & sharing it with others.

Providing value by itself doesn't generate income does it? You have to have some sort of desire for income and system in place to make or accept money, not only provide value to people

[Crushable]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

I think I might sort of understand.

Though you say the formula is to create value & share it with people....what about people that volunteer for causes?

Like people that volunteer to organize free groceries for people. Or people that volunteer in free soup kitchens. ? They are creating value & sharing it with others.

Providing value by itself doesn't generate income does it? You have to have some sort of desire for income and system in place to make or accept money, not only provide value to people

I think that would be more of an example of giving value, not creating value.

An example of creating value would be if you're incredibly passionate and motivated about charitable work, so you start a microfinance venture that invests in small business in developing nations. You create something that need to be created and did not already exist. That is the ideal. You strike a synergistic mix between benefiting yourself and benefiting others.

[Savage]

Creating and delivering value manifests support. But such support doesn't always show up in financial terms. You may not even need money to do what you do. Money itself, after all, is powerless. It's nothing but a number.

You don't need money to manifest food, clothing, shelter, iStuff, etc.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by James81

Any thoughts on how to truly, authentically, get yourself into this frame of mind?

What I mean is, even when I'm *not* after it for the money and truly doing what I love to do, there's still a niggly voice in the back of my head saying "you're eventually going to want to monetize this". Or, rather, it has felt like (on my old site anyway) I'm just following your formula because I know the end result is abundance.

How do you separate the two? How do you get to the place where 100% don't care if what you are doing ever brings you a penny and be so focused on the value that you want to share that money doesn't even enter your mind?

I figure there's a limiting belief behind it somewhere, but the more I look for it, the more it wriggles away like a snake.

Try dialoging with that voice and see what it has to say. Maybe it's trying to tell you something, and you aren't listening to it well enough.

Literally do it out loud. Ask it questions and then let it answer via your voice.

[danas]

How much did it end up? Its been removed form ebay

[carenkh]

I just got that email as well - looks like ebay yanked it?

[danas]

Originally Posted by carenkh

I just got that email as well - looks like ebay yanked it?

Oh yeah, I guess they did, I thought the week was over, but youre right, its not, they yanked it.
Wonder why...

It says:

- Unfortunately, the listing is no longer available. We understand that this may be disappointing, but sometimes we need to remove listings to protect buyers.

There are three main reasons why we remove listings:
The listing doesn't follow eBay guidelines.
-- The item isn't allowed on eBay or can only be listed under certain conditions.
-- The listing contains pictures or words in it that may have created copyright or trademark issues.

[Terry C]

What happened? Why did the yank it? Can't you offer a service on ebay?

[Trezker]

Aww, you guys went back on topic. :/ I thought the money focus discussion was interesting.

I'm gonna add my thoughts on that discussion anyway.
I think what Steve is trying to knock into your heads is that you should _not worry_ about making money.
Your job is to provide value to the world. Don't even think any further than that!
Once you're getting good at delivering value, people will start trying to force feed you value in return, goods, services and money. All you have to do then is accept their gifts.

Life gives you what you want when you've proved you don't need it.

"Truly, a game that stomps you to death 20 minutes in and tells you you can have your health bar back once you've proved you don't need it is a game that does not f*** around" - Demon's Souls - Zero Punctuation Wiki

[Gene]

Item rmoved, what a bummer. I wonder if the auction will be reinstated.

[freddy]

I bought it with the buy it now option.

[Savage]

eBay nuked it. See this post for details:
Spanked by eBay

[AaronB]

Originally Posted by James81

Any thoughts on how to truly, authentically, get yourself into this frame of mind?

What I mean is, even when I'm *not* after it for the money and truly doing what I love to do, there's still a niggly voice in the back of my head saying "you're eventually going to want to monetize this". Or, rather, it has felt like (on my old site anyway) I'm just following your formula because I know the end result is abundance.

How do you separate the two? How do you get to the place where 100% don't care if what you are doing ever brings you a penny and be so focused on the value that you want to share that money doesn't even enter your mind?

I figure there's a limiting belief behind it somewhere, but the more I look for it, the more it wriggles away like a snake.

I like this question. There's so much practicality to it. For me something that seems valuable is to notice in any action I take am I motivated by obligation or inspiration. Often it feels like something I want to do but there's that niggly voice back around the corner barely visible. Whenever I look more closely, that voice is running the whole show. That 1% turns out to be 100%. I consider what would happen if that voice disappeared? My whole motivation disappears with it.

This isn't to say that I won't be inspired to go in that same direction later, it just means that for me at this moment if I feel ever so slightly obligated to do something, it means I'm acting out of 100% obligation. True inspiration leaves no room for any obligation. It's just too much fun!